On July 4th, 2006, I embarked on a quest to become the pre-eminent American portrait painter of the 21st century. This blog chronicles that journey. With apologies to Joan Didion, I call it THE YEAR OF MAGICAL PAINTING.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Monaco

"It's like riding a bike around your front room." -- Nelson Piquet

In support of the Bianchi-in-the-living-room concept, consider this quick lap by Ayrton Senna ...

The best part is the pass at the 1:15 mark. It is also worth noting that he is essentially driving with one hand, since you shift 50-60 times in the space of just less than 75 seconds.

For those of you not in the loop, the Grand Prix of Monaco takes place on Sunday. You can watch it on the NBC Sports Network sometime in the late morning/early afternoon. Then open a bag of chips and watch the Indy 500. Then grab the onion dip, more chips, a 16 oz can of Bud Light, and watch the Whatever 600 after that. Although now that Juan Pablo Montoya doesn't race anymore I can't be bothered with NASCAR.

This is Alberto Ascari taking a bit of a dip in the harbor at Monaco, circa 1955 ...

All that stuff you see in the water are hay bales. Which are what passed for safety barriers in those days. That banner, still stuck to the car, is kind of a giggle too. We can laugh about it because once he had cooled off, Ascari then swam to shore, unhurt.

His car, I'm sure, was worse for the wear. They fished it out later, and I wonder if, somewhere, in some museum or collection someplace, that car is sitting there waiting to be looked at.Historical note: Ascari died four days later, testing a Ferrari at Monza.